Healing to Wellness Court as Good Governance
Joseph Flies-Away 
 

Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts are a healing and restorative justice response to the criminal justice system’s failure to adequately treat persons and families suffering with substance abuse. However, Healing to Wellness Courts, like the rest of the criminal justice system, are also iterations of governance. Their careful planning, participation by diverse groups, written memorialization, and accountability are all crucial components because Healing to Wellness Courts serve not only participants but the entire community. This workshop will set the foundation for the training under the Tribal 10 Key Components, and frame Healing to Wellness Courts as important aspects of the larger tribal government. Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts are a healing and restorative justice response to the criminal justice system’s failure to adequately treat persons and families suffering with substance abuse. However, Healing to Wellness Courts, like the rest of the criminal justice system, are also iterations of governance. Their careful planning, participation by diverse groups, written memorialization, and accountability are all crucial components because Healing to Wellness Courts serve not only participants but the entire community. This workshop will set the foundation for the training under the Tribal 10 Key Components, and frame Healing to Wellness Courts as important aspects of the larger tribal government. 

 

What Drug Court Judges and Other Court Personnel Should Know About Treatment
Jeff Kushner
 

Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts are the coming together of otherwise distinct service providers, all for the betterment of the participant. Because the criminal justice system is joining forces with treatment providers to better assist the participant, it is therefore crucial that the entire team understands treatment concepts and how they work best with the justice system. This workshop will provide a summary overview of the criminal topics relating to drug court treatment. The goals of workshop are to better understand treatment both as a consumer of treatment services, as well as to ensure that drug court participants are receiving the evidence-based services that they need. 
 

• A Technical Assistance Guide for What Drug Court Judges Should Know About Treatment, Jeff Kushner, Roger Peters, and Caroline Cooper, American University Bureau of Justice Assistance Drug Court Technical Assistance Project (April 15, 2014). 

 

Planning a Healing to Wellness Court: The 10 Key Components
Joseph Flies-Away 
 

Drug courts are identified by ten operational characteristics of the drug court process.  However, because tribal communities have unique government systems and cultural contexts, the standard state components may not always be appropriate. The Tribal 10 Key Components have been reoriented and generalized from the NADCP state drug court key components as relevant to the tribal setting and to allow for tailoring in different geographic, demographic, jurisdictional, and cultural tribal contexts. This workshop will provide an introductory overview the tribal 10 key components, including specific examples of how the components have been realized in operational Tribal Wellness Courts. In addition, this workshop will explore other important considerations for planning and implementing a Healing to Wellness Court.

 

Legal Issues
Charlene Jackson 
 

Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts function under a different legal framework than their State Drug Court counterparts. This workshop will explore that legal framework, including the Indian Civil Rights Act, the newly enacted Tribal Law and Order Act and the Violence Against Women Act, as well as potentially applicable tribal law. In addition, this workshop will explore state drug court case law, which while not authoritative, nevertheless might offer insights into legal issues facing Healing to Wellness Courts.

 

Sanctions and Incentives
Charlene Jackson
 

Tribal key component six calls for the use of progressive rewards (or incentives) and consequences (or sanctions) to encourage participant compliance with the Wellness Court requirements. This workshop will detail the research and evidenced-based principles behind effectively utilizing this strategy, and creative ways that Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts have been realizing this component in sustainable and culturally appropriate ways.

 

Screening and Assessment Tools
Mark Panasiewicz
 

Tribal Key Component 3 calls for eligible parents, guardians, juveniles, and adults to be identified early through legal and clinical screening. This workshop will explore the strategies and tools available for this clinical identification, including tools for the initial screening, and tools for the subsequent, more in-depth assessment. This workshop touch upon the many available resources, and walk through a screening, pointing out important considerations for producing a reliable determination that will best serve the participant, as well as best utilize the Healing to Wellness Court resources.

• Addiction Severity Index, 5th ed.

• The Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST)

• The Alcohol Use Disorders Indentification Test (AUDIT)

 

Healing to Wellness Court Presentations

Navajo Alamo To'hajiilee Healing to Wellness Court
 

The best lessons come from our brothers and sisters practicing in the field. This workshop will offer the history and experiences of two Healing to Wellness Court teams in their journeys to serve their communities.

 

Tribal-State Collaborations
Shingle Springs Tribal-State Collaborations
Charlene Jackson and the Shingle Springs Healing to Wellness Court Team 

State and tribal courts stem from separate sovereigns and different histories, enforce different laws, and serve different, yet often overlapping populations. Recognition of these differences can strengthen rather than diminish the services that we provide. This plenary will explore the history that informs Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts, potential benefits to Tribal Wellness Courts and State Drug Courts from collaboration, strategies for collaboration, and specific examples of successful collaboration that include written referral agreements, joint team members, cultural consultants, and joint courts. In addition, this plenary will hear from the Shingle Springs of Miwok Indians Healing to Wellness Court, which is currently engaged in collaboration with its neighbor, El Dorado County.

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Unique Role of Judges in Healing to Wellness Court
Joseph Flies-Away
 

As a leader of that team, the Healing to Wellness Court Judge provides a unique role of both accountability and mentorship that is markedly different that the role of a Trial Court Judge.  The Wellness Court Judge is not only the leader of the Tribal Wellness Court team, but is also the guide to the participant, as well as the protector of the participants’ civil rights and other procedural processes.  This workshop will explore these distinct new roles and responsibilities.  The workshop will utilize Tribal Wellness Court “Bench Cards,” to provide quick access while on the bench.

• Bench Card 1: Key Component 1

• Bench Card 2: Key Component 2

• Bench Card 3: Key Component 3

• Bench Card 4: Key Component 4

• Bench Card 5: Key Component 5

• Bench Card 6: Key Component 6

• Bench Card 7: Key Component 7

• Bench Card 8: Key Component 8

• Bench Card 9: Key Component 9

• Bench Card 10: Key Component 10

• Bench Card 11: Referral

• Bench Card 12: Transfer and Acceptance

• Bench Card 13: Entry Eligibility

• Bench Card 14: Initial Hearing

• Bench Card 15: Staffing Meeting

 

Case Management
Donna Humetewa Kaye and Raphael Wahwassuck

The demands of a Healing to Wellness Court can be trying even for the most organized and best intentioned. Successful progression often necessitates guidance. This workshop will explore the important role of a case manager for every Healing to Wellness Court team, which includes providing services beyond substance abuse treatment. The case manager enhances coordination of the Wellness Court team’s efforts, including by providing case planning, referrals, tracking of progress, and collaborating with other agencies. This workshop will include poignant case examples, and real-world applications, as well as some moderate audience interaction.

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Guess What – You’re a Family Court Too (If Your Clients Have Children)—Practice Considerations When Working with Families in Drug Courts
Russ Bermejo

Addiction is a disease that impacts the entire family and its relationships.  Therefore, all collaborative courts are family courts if their clients include parents and children.  This workshop will explore the importance of a family-centered approach and key elements of family engagement and supporting the parent-child relationship.  Participants will gain a greater understanding and awareness of how addiction and drug court interventions impact the child and family unit and why collaboration and partnerships are critical for achieving family recovery and well-being.  This workshop will preview and briefly highlight some of the lessons learned from the Family Drug Court model.  Training and technical assistance resources will also be provided to facilitate further understanding of family-centered practice and approach in all drug courts.
Handout: Accounting for the Role in Families in Drug Court Evaluations. Includes:
-  Process and outcome evaluation questions concerning the role of participants' children and family members
-  Components of basic, intermediate, and intensive evaluation strategies to account for activities including children and families

 

Data Collection: Management Information Systems
Jose Ferrer

Tribal key component eight calls for the collection of relevant data in order to monitor and evaluate the achievement of the program goals, to identify needed improvements, determine participant progress, and provide information to governing bodies, interested community groups, and funding sources. This workshop will detail the important data points that should be collected by every Healing to Wellness Court. In addition, this workshop will go over the Buffalo Management Information System (MIS), a software developed, used, and donated by the Buffalo, NY Drug Court. The Buffalo MIS is a simple, menu-driven system, used to record information on drug court clients from intake through to their termination or graduation. Each attendee will receive a copy of the Buffalo MIS, capable for modifying to your court’s particular needs.

 

Enablement Prevention Program
        Enablement Part I
          Enablement Part II
Mark Panasiewicz

Developed by Hope Works Counseling, the treatment providers for the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Adult Healing to Wellness Court, the Enablement Prevention Program is an interactive program that involves education of family members to help create a united team between service providers and loved ones. The Enablement Prevention Program is based on existing programs such as Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT), Dialectic Cognitive behavioral therapy and on evidence based research of the damaging effect that enablement has on recovery. Enablement Prevention has been in practice and an element of recovery for at least the last 20 years. It originated out of Group Guided Interaction and the 12 step program.  EPP is a form of peer-group treatment similar to group interventions where individuals experiencing similar problems can come together in a safe environment to share and receive experiences and get support. Furthermore, it is a cost-effective form of mental health treatment when compared to individual-based therapy. The goal of the group is to develop interactions with the client and to prevent the further enablement of the client and the client’s criminal behavior. EPP also utilizes value-based and process-oriented treatment model. The freedom from enablement will encourage clients into maturity, pro-social behavior and attitudes, and manages to make the client answerable for their own negative, delinquent behaviors and attitudes.

 

National Perspectives – Family Drug Court
Russ Bermejo

Built from a common vision and extraordinary collaboration effort among child welfare, substance abuse treatment providers and the Court system, Family Drug Courts (FDCs) have emerged as a promising model for improving outcomes for children and families affected by substance use disorders in the child welfare system.  The model is impacting the lives and futures of children and families through timely decisions, coordinated services, provisions of substance abuse treatment and safe and permanent placements.  This workshop will explore key elements and practice strategies of the FDC model, outcome findings from local site and cross-site evaluations, the challenges and opportunities ahead to expand or institutionalize the innovations of FDCs into the larger child welfare system.  Training and technical assistance resources will also be provided to facilitate further understanding of the FDC model. 
 

Assessing Healing to Wellness Courts
Melissa Riley

Tribal key component eight states that evaluation is an important aspect of a healthy, continually evolving Tribal Healing to Wellness Court. This workshop will overview the key considerations for what an evaluation should include, what data should be collected in order conduct an evaluation, what stakeholders should be involved, and how evaluations can best be utilized to facilitate the growth of the Wellness Courts. Additionally, this workshop will overview the key considerations for evaluations of Wellness Courts that operate with federal funding. Finally, this workshop will briefly overview available resources to obtain an evaluation.

 

Developing Phased Treatment
Mark Panasiewicz

Phased treatment is the structuring of a participant’s progress through Healing to Wellness Court by the marked passage from distinct “phases,” most often numbering in four. Tribal key component number four notes that phased treatment is a crucial aspect of the services provided to Wellness Court participants. Each Tribal Healing to Wellness Court will have a slightly different take upon what these phases represent, what is required to pass from one phase to another, and how, if at all, culture and tradition interplay. This workshop will detail the important considerations for what should be included in the different phases, what materials should be provided to participants and their families concerning the phases, how best to design your own phases that match with your strategic goals for your Wellness Court, and finally, how several different Wellness Courts have realized their own phased treatment.  

 

Honoring our Children by Honoring our Traditions: Ysleta del Sur Pueblo
Leah Lopez and Mary Sue Soto
 

This presentation will focus on how the National Indian Child Welfare Association's Positive Indian Parenting training model was used at Ysleta del Sur Pueblo (YDSP). Participants will learn about this unique curriculum that focuses on traditional ways of parenting, how it was tailored to fit YDSP's community and how it can be used in their own community.

 

Incorporating Culture and Tradition
Donna Humetewa Kaye

A participant’s healing often includes re-integration into the community and re-integration with one’s self. Cultural resources can be used to ground the self, reconnect with lost custom, and develop spiritual and cultural meaning that may have been lost or disregarded. Incorporation of culture into Drug Court or Healing to Wellness Court programming can take a variety of forms, from including cultural activities into the sanctions and incentives, to having a Wellness Court tribal name, to embedding treatment phases with cultural significance. Incorporation of custom and tradition can be especially important for Native participants, who often stem from a different worldview than that offered in standard drug court settings. This workshop will explore this different worldview, and strategies for incorporating custom and tradition into both Tribal Healing to Wellness Court and into State Drug Court programs.

 

Peer Positivity Group
Mark Panasiewicz 

Developed by Hope Works Counseling, the treatment providers for the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Adult Healing to Wellness Court, Positive Peer Group (PPG) provides the peer support and moral reconation that is missing in conventional talk and group therapy. The peer participants’ primary role is to learn to accept responsibility and in turn, hold their peers accountable. The group’s foundational approach is built on Harry Vorath’s and Larry Brendtro’s Positive Peer Culture modality. The PPG approach helps participants gain self-worth, accept responsibility, develop dignity and honesty with themselves and others. PPG also teaches the participants to help each other versus enable each other. The participants are taught exactly how to challenge their own dysfunctional thinking that leads to detrimental behavior. The participants learn how to change that thinking to a functional healthy thought process ultimately leading to identifying behaviors before they cause problems.  PPG integrates the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)  approaches to teach daily living skills, healthy communication skills,  healthy relationship development,  anger management , and trauma informed psycho-education, volunteer work, community outreach/ support, and  positive parenting techniques.

 

Team Building
Donna Humetewa Kaye
Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts break the western adversarial mold by focusing on the participant’s healing journey through team-based collaboration. The success of the Wellness Courts depends on the well-being of the team. However, despite all the best intentions and focus, all teams are prone to temporary bouts of dysfunction, miscommunication, turnover, and vicarious trauma. This workshop seeks to send teams off in a good way, by turning the attention inwards and reflecting upon what makes a team work, and strategies that we can all use to better serve our participants.

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